The Stars Say Hello
by Shintou01
Summary: This is the story of Elizabeth Hutchins, one of the explorers of the A.E.P. sent to the farthest reaches of the galaxy to catalogue and report their findings back to the Atlas database. This is a planned partial-novelization of my journey through No Man's Sky. A second, more-detailed summary is at the beginning of the first chapter.


Second Summary: The Atlas Expedition Program was conceived as a multi-species plan to explore and map unknown galaxies in an attempt to fulfill the Atlas network's original purpose–to be a repository of all accumulated knowledge. The plan for the A.E.P. was two-fold but simple: beacons would be launched through portals on key planets and attach themselves to the surface of the nearest planet on the other side. Once the beacons were through and synced to the Atlas network, the explorers of the A.E.P. would themselves be sent through the portals and begin their journeys to record their findings.

* * *

"We will await your—we will await your—we will await your—"

Elizabeth groaned as she opened her eyes at the annoying sound and saw that it was coming from the damaged video screen just in front of her. She tapped a button next to the screen and watched as it blinked off before she sighed as she tried to lean back against her seat only to regret it as her entire body began to ache. She waited for the aching to subside before she glanced around inside the cockpit and not only saw sparks coming from some of the equipment, but also saw warning lights for the engine and launch thrusters. She sighed again before she glanced out the side of the cockpit and felt her eyes widen as she saw the landscape that lay beyond her downed ship and couldn't help the small smile on her face as the realization sunk in. Not only was she still alive, but she'd made it to the other side…somehow. Now, she just had to get her ship repaired and she could start her exploration. She unbuckled herself from her seat and took a look at the readout on the inside of her helmet.

"Not detecting any toxins…air's got just enough oxygen to be manageable without life support…good enough," she mumbled to herself before she hit the release on the canopy and waited for it to rise high enough before she slowly clambered out and onto the ground while doing her best to be mindful of the still constant aching in her body. She glanced around for just a moment to make sure that she couldn't see anything wandering around in the distance beyond her downed ship before she made her way around the rear of her ship. She sighed as she saw the smoke rising from the side of the thrusters and slowly eased herself underneath them to see about the extent of the damage from the crash landing.

After a few minutes, she finished her inspection and, for just a moment, had to keep from kicking her ship. She was going to need some thamium9 to charge the engine to get it back online and plutonium to charge the thrusters as well as iron to make some carite sheets to replace the damaged sections of the thrusters. She sighed as she logged the three materials that she needed into her exo-suit's memory so that she wouldn't forget what resources that she needed as she made her way back around to the side of the cockpit. She reached inside and flipped a switch next to the damaged video screen to activate the microphone. She took a deep breath as she tried to decide on what to say before the words finally came to her.

"To anyone who can hear this message, my name is Elizabeth Hutchins. I am from Telar IV. It has been exactly twelve hours since I launched as part of the Atlas Expedition Program. Eight hours ago, I crashed on an uncharted planet. As of present, the thrusters on my ship are heavily damaged and the engine is offline alongside the main power, but I am still alive. As soon as I can find enough resources to fix the thrusters and the engine, I will attempt to locate the nearest beacon and upload my findings on this world's ecosystem. After that, I will make my return to the sky and begin my exploration of this system."

* * *

A/N: My current plan with this story is for it to be an adaptation of my own journey through No Man's Sky although parts of it will almost certainly not be canon to the in-game lore due to how little of the game's lore and background inside the story have been revealed as of today. I haven't decided yet though if I will change my own theories and ideas that will be incorporated into this story to fit with the game's lore once I begin playing or if I will leave them as they are.

Also, sorry for the short length of this first chapter. The chapter itself was originally much longer and was focused on the build-up and events prior to the actual launch of Elizabeth Hutchins and the other explorers through the portals, but I lost that version when I was transferring files over to my new computer. As a result, I rewrote this section and currently plan on incorporating the events prior to this chapter into later chapters as flashbacks. And, as an additional note, I will most likely not be working on the next chapter until possibly this weekend due to getting No Man's Sky tomorrow.


End file.
